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LeBron James' new Nike "Together" commercial was a "very hush-hush" project that filmed over several days in Cleveland earlier this month. (Nike)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- LeBron James' hyper-promoted technicolor return to the Cavaliers is now painted with a black-and-white sheen boosting something larger: Cleveland itself.
The new two-minute Nike "Together" commercial that debuted Thursday night to coincide with the Cavs' season-opener, is getting a lot of national buzz. Shot in Cleveland under a shroud of secrecy earlier this month, it combines heart-of-the-city sentiment with feature film lighting and editing techniques, all underscored by an emotional, escalating mantra: "Hard Work! Together!"
It is a love letter to the city's resilience and a massive group hug for a populace embracing the determination of its hero returning after four years of self-imposed exile.
In addition to rolling out on TNT's national broadcast of the game, and later on ESPN, the Nike spot played on the massive screens at Quicken Loans Arena before tipoff.
"Oh my gosh, it was just fantastic," said Ruth Wine of Akron, who was at the Q Thursday to see the Cavs fall to the New York Knicks 95-90. She was impressed, she said, by the power of the commercial and the unifying chants of the hundreds of extras. She should know, because she was one of them.
On Oct. 6, the 78-year-old spent a 17-hour day at CSU's Wolstein Center, which was masquerading as the Q, with about 500 other extras.
"The arms on the shoulders and the swaying and repeating the 'Hard work, together' was electric," said Wine, part of the growing circle of fans rippling out from the Cavs' huddle. "All that testosterone. You could just feel and hear the youth, the energy."
The project shot in Cleveland for several days earlier this month.
"It was all very hush-hush," said Kathi Buck, an extra from Suffield, Ohio. "There were very strict rules about no cameras, no phones, no social media."
In addition, this being a Nike commercial, extras received precise instructions on what kind of gear and shoes they could wear.
"You could wear a Cavs shirt, but it had to be made by Nike or the NBA ," said Buck. "If you weren't wearing Nike shoes, it had to be a brand where the logo didn't show. I showed up one day in a jean jacket and they had someone cover the little red Levi's tag with a piece of tape."
In the on-court huddle sequence, you can see Buck about four rows behind James. She saw herself in the ad Thursday and so did others.
"My phone started ringing like crazy and my Facebook page blew up," said Buck. She worked as an extra for several days. She was part of the crowd outside of the Q, the throngs on East 4th Street and at the large gathering at the War Memorial Fountain on Mall A, with the bronze sculpture (aka the big green guy) reaching high into the sky. In the commercial, some digital wizardry makes the 500 extras look more like several thousand fans.
"Everyone was very nice," said Buck, who is used to pressure having spent 32 years as a 911 dispatcher. "It blows my mind that it was so many people, yet so organized. To my knowledge, everyone kept it quiet until Thursday, which is amazing."
The commercial was created by Nike's ad agency Wieden + Kennedy, and directed by Brandon and Emmett Malloy. In addition to several Nike campaigns, the Portland, Oregon-based Wieden + Kennedy, also produces ads for Facebook, Coca-Cola, Chrysler, Sony and other high-profile clients. The Malloy brothers have created a wide variety of commercials and documentaries, as well as music videos for the White Stripes, Black Eyed Peas, Metallica and Blink 182.
"This one feels different than any other commercial I've seen," said co-director Emmett Malloy on the phone Friday from Los Angeles. "I feel that my brother and I preserve reality really well. We wanted it to feel genuine and real."
Malloy said shooting in Cleveland was a big advantage. "Having 500 people come down, all the Cavs fans, it just feels more emotional. If we had done it in L.A. with 500 jaded extras, it would not have had the same impact."
James joined the shoot near the end, after about three days of footage had been shot.
"You usually have so little time with mega-superstars, but we had about 4 hours with LeBron. He could see the tone and spirit of what we had shot. He saw that it was not rah-rah screaming. It was more beauty and poetry, more silence. And he was able to play off of that."
The choice of black and white was an attempt to give the commercial a more classic feel. "It was also a way to block out all of the colors of what everyone was wearing and make people feel more like one," said Malloy.
"Using black and white was a great idea," said Tony Weber, CEO of Cleveland's Goldfarb Weber Creative Media, a video production company. "It adds to the realness, the grittiness of Cleveland. Any LeBron haters have to be turned around now. Here he is taking the whole city on his back."
Nike picked up on James' theme of "going back home and going back to work," said Nike communications manager Lisa Beachy, from Chicago, where she was heading to Friday night's Cavs-Bulls game. "This commercial is about a community going to work and uniting for one goal. And everyone used was local."
As for the commercial's extended length, she said, "This did not need to fit into the confines of a 15- or 30- or 60-second spot. The content dictated the length."
In addition to the melting pot of extras of various races and ages, the spot includes several of James' Cavs teammates, including Kyrie Irving, Anderson Varejao, Shawn Marion and Tristan Thompson.
New Cavs forward Kevin Love, who has an endorsement contract with Nike competitor Adidas, is not seen.
James' mother, Gloria, and coach Dru Joyce, from his St. Vincent-St. Mary High School days in Akron, are also glimpsed.
The airwaves were also filled Thursday night with James' other long-form commercial, the Akron-focused Beats headphones ad featuring multiple close ups of James' buff bod during workouts.
At last count, the Beats ad, which debuted earlier this month, had 11.3 million hits on Youtube, while the newer Nike entry had 1.8 million hits.
One is selling shoes (Nike's LEBRON 12 HRT OF A LION also debuted Thursday), and one is selling headphones (Beats by Dre's PowerBeats 2 Wireless). But both feature long looks at Cleveland and Akron.
It's not Rust Belt chic, but Rust Belt reverence. The shots of Akron are of a downtrodden metropolis that "raised" James, buttressed by the religious overtones of Hozier's "Take Me to Church." The implication is that the city will "rise" again. The Nike ad features more plaintive music but a more affirmative vibe of people uniting for a common cause.
How many shoes and headphones they will sell is unclear. But both ads put Northeast Ohio in the national spotlight and both foster a universal theme: redemption.
Plain Dealer reporters Teresa Murray and Janet Cho contributed to this article.